Have a kitten born late December, got her around the beginning of July. So she is around 7 months now. I tried to do my research and get from a reliable breeder (which I still think I did). She was already spayed with her shots and de-wormed, came with a contract, parents checked by a cardiologist for heart issues, ect. However, I think she may have some sort of digestion issue and I am trying to figure out what to do or what tests to ask the vet for (she has been to two different vets).
The breeder feeds raw to his cats normally and told me she was the exception and didn't tolerate raw at all and advised me not to feed her raw. He had been feeding her baked chicken and Alamo chicken with pumpkin. She sometimes (rarely) ate royal canin mother and baby cat.
In very fine print on Alamo it states it is not a complete diet, doh. So I tried to switch her off that first with Tiki cat chicken thinking that would be the easiest switch since it would be close to her diet. That did not go well at all, horrible liquid stools and vomiting, even with only mixing a little into baked chicken. We stopped that after 2 days of getting nowhere.
Next I tried mixing the royal canin with baked chicken (I know its not great food but was trying for something she had some exposure too). It was better but still she was getting upset tummy and loose stools (not pure liquid this time).
We tried that for a bit but it really was still making her too sick for my comfort.
Now we are trying limited ingredient instinct turkey which has worked the best but still random times she gets nauseated, not even close to as bad as before and her stools are normal.
Symptoms: Nausea, lip licking, vomiting (much less often now), reflux (where little food/acid seems to come up to back of her throat/teeth almost passively), LOUD gurgling stomach, sounds like it is full of liquid sloshing around at times, sometimes her belly appears round/firm and uncomfortable a few hours after eating, her back teeth are BAD for her age with deposits and looks like the start of gingivitis to me (probably from the reflux? I am brushing them atm which has helped), used to be gassy but that has been better.
We have been to two vets: Right now she is getting probiotics (which may explain the better stools). She was de-wormed by the breeder months ago so we de-wormed her again at the vet and the next week brought in stool sample to test for worms/giardia which was negative (this was after the de-worming).
I plan to get her teeth cleaned but was hoping to get her feeling better first (I lost a cat who vomited and aspirated into her lungs after waking up from anesthesia due to excess stomach acid even though she wasn't eating/drinking prior so I am uneasy to put her under when she's having reflux issues). She also came down with a mild viral respiratory infection after bringing her home (from stress?) but that is pretty much cleared up now.
I guess what should I do now? She has improved at least, should I just keep trying to get her diet completely switched? She has NO gastric issues on just baked chicken. She had some days where she had no gastric distress at all so I thought we were in the clear and stopped giving her chicken (was mixing 50/50 at that point). She stole and chewed on a sponge that day (doesn't appear she ate any unless it was teeny tiny pieces) and we had to start from square one as it gave her an upset tummy. She is pooping.
The vet advise was to try to get her on normal food first and if that didn't work, go from there. I have kept in contact with the breeder if there is anything I should ask.
IBD? Food sensitivity? Sensitive stomach?
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